The Road to Amber

There have been many Amber-themed MUSHes in the past. This is an attempt to provide a short little history of the hobby. (If anyone can provide more detail about any of these games, it would be welcome. Dates are drawn out of Helix's archives of old email, databases, MUDlists, and so forth, plus personal recollections.)

All of the games listed below are either closed, or are no longer being actively run (i.e., they may still be available for logins, but there is no longer a staff paying attention to them).

• AmberMUSH: The grand-daddy of all Amber-based games. Founded one night on a whim in the fall of 1991 (before the end of November and the publication of Prince of Chaos), mostly by PernMUSH wizards, when PernMUSH crashed. It was originally intended to be a building-oriented loosely-themed light-roleplay game. For a while, it even had a Pern-style Weyr. With the publication of the Amber Diceless RPG, though, the still-under-construction game was retooled to set it a few years after Merlin's Chronicles and to use the DRPG. It threw open its doors to the public in the spring of 1992, after an all-night drunk building session that put into place its first Castle Amber. The rest is history; the relatively loose theming carried through in a general emphasis on play primarily in shadow. Roger Zelazny granted the game its blessing, effectively giving it and future games like it permission to run.

• Patternfall: Opened in February of 1995. Set right after Corwin's Chronicles, with the Elders returning from Chaos, with only the first series considered canonical. Intended to follow the spirit of the first series and be more focused on the thematic material.

• Nine Princes MUX: Founded in early 1996. Never opened.

• PrimalMUSH: Opened in a beta state in June 1997. It was set during Gerard's regency and then after Corwin's Chronicles, using strictly the first series as canon, and was completely Amber and Golden Circle-centric. It used an original RPG system. It closed before becoming fully open to the public.

• Blood of Amber: Founded in November 1998, opened fully in March 1999. It was set ten years after Corwin's Chronicles, but in a dark alternate future, where Brand managed to draw his own Pattern (and found an empire upon its shadows and his personal dynasty), and Corwin and Dara ruled Amber. It was a more mythic, lyrical take on Amber, and strictly Amber-centric.

• GenerationsMUSH: Opened in December 1999. Set 99 years after Corwin's Chronicles, but ignored the second series. The game was Amber-centric, but included significant interaction with Chaos.

• Shadowstorm MUSH: Opened in 2000 (?). Set at the very beginning of Corwin's Chronicles.

• Serpent and Unicorn: Opened in 2000 (?). Set after Merlin's Chronicles.

• Chronicles of Amber: Opened in July 2006. Set after the short stories, and essentially designed as a continuation of the post-Merlin material in a structured story arc, it is the sole game to have accepted the entirety of the Zelazny-written canon.

• Chronicles of Amber, restart: Opened in August 2008. Set during Oberon's reign, just after Mirelle walks the Pattern.